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[I] See Taboo.
[W] One of Arthur’s warriors.
(ca. a.d. 1100–1155). A Welsh cleric of Breton origin. His family appears to have followed William of Normandy into England but then established themselves in southern Wales. He was a cleric at Oxford and later became Bishop of St. Asaph in 1151. Among other texts, he wrote the Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which is regarded as a founding text for medieval Arthurian saga.
[W] He features in the rather sentimental love story as the lover who doubts the loyalty of Enid. It is thought he is based on the Dumnonian king who rode with the Gododdin to recapture Catraeth (Catterick) from the Anglo-Saxons, but he is not to be confused with the Dumnonian king (fl. a.d. 710) to whom Adhelm, bishop of Sherborne, wrote his criticism of the Celtic Church.
Giants occur in the myths and sagas quite frequently, and, indeed, some of the Celtic heroes and deities are referred to in the form of giants. Giant seems to be a Celtic metaphor for distinguishing a personage above the ordinary. In later legends Fionn Mac Cumhail is termed a “giant,” while Olwen is the daughter of Yspaddaden the Giant.
“The Wise.” British Celtic saint (ca. a.d. 500–570). While he studied under St. Illytd in southern Wales, he is thought to have been born either in the British Strath-Clòta (Strathclyde) kingdom or in Cumbria. He is accredited with writing Epistola Gildae, an open letter to rebuke the secular and ecclesiastical British Celts, and with De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. However, some scholars contest his authorship of De Excidio, claiming that a contemporary cleric, whose name is unknown, wrote it. Gildas is thought to have visited Ireland and then gone to Brittany, where he founded a monastery at Rhuys. In the twelfth century, the abbot at St.Gildas-de-Rhuys was Abelard. The tragic story of Abelard and Heloise is almost part of Celtic mythology itself. It has curious parallels to the Irish tale of Liadin and Cuirithir, surviving from a ninth century text. Gildas’ work is a fascinating support to some Arthurian contentions. See De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae.
[W] Son of Don. He fell ill for the love of Goewin, daughter of Pebin, who was the current virginal foot holder to Math, son of Mathonwy. Gilfaethwy confided his feeling to his
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